The spectacular Disney musical Beauty And The Beast returned for a second season and in spite of high ticket rates, was sold out.

The production has all the grandeur and stage magic of a Disney musical, but done with an Indian cast and crew and directed by VikranthPawar. The huge Dome at the NSCI was converted into an auditorium, showing off huge and and beautiful sets, peppy music and dance set pieces, gorgeous costumes—everything a fairy tale should be. When MeherMistry plays Belle with such spirit and intelligence (she loves books) for once the quibble about how archaic these stories now seem, can be put aside. And once it has been proved that such a spectacle can be pulled off in India, the expectations from live entertainment are bound to shoot up.

Mumbai, which calls itself the entertainment capital of India, does not have a Broadway or West End, which attract hordes of audiences, many of them tourists looking to get an authentic theatre experience. Which is not to say that the germ of that idea cannot be sown, now that there is a fair amount of money being poured into theatre.

Mumbai does not take business lightly and over the last few years there has been an exponential increase in the number of plays being produced, across the spectrum—from shoestring budget to mega productions. Kudos to Mumbai audiences too, for buying their tickets and not demanding “don’t you know who I am?” complimentaries. Nor just that, they don’t flinch at spending amounts from Rs 300- Rs 8000 for tickets.

Credit must be given to a couple of major theatre events, that must have served as eye-openers to the entertainment industry, because big industrial houses are taking the lead. One is the Aadyam initiative by the Aditya Birla Group, and even earlier the Writers’ Bloc Festival supported by the Jindal and Bajaj group of industries. They must have seen value in theatre to invest in it.

But it is undoubtedly the Disney production of Beauty And The Beast that proved that the city (and maybe some other parts of the country) are ready to be a part of the international theatre circuit and that after this successful foray into the Indian market by Disney, other productions will be planned.

Earlier this year, Jeeves And Wooster In Perfect Nonsense travelled to Mumbai from the West End. Then theatre maestro Peter Brook’s Battlefield had Mumbai on its international itinerary. This year will see a lot more foreign hits coming to Mumbai, because now the money and managerial skills are here, infrastructure will just follow.

In India, this is happening without any government aid and very little corporate funding. So imagine how much theatre could have grown if there was financial support, more world class venues to perform and fewer bureaucratic hurdles.

There is no comprehensive study done on the business of theatre, but if one were to be commissioned, the figures might just startle those who think theatre is just for the arty few. In spite of the many problems it faces, theatre is only growing, enveloping as it goes along, new technologies (video, LED screens, 3D mapping) that make it worthwhile for an audience to pay high ticket prices to watch. So, ironically, the oldest entertainment medium seems to be entering a growth phase, fuelled by an audience craving high quality stage experience.